Crawford clinches pole for Baku Feature Race in drama-filled Baku qualifying

Aston Martin Development driver Jak Crawford took Feature Race pole in a drama-filled and red-flag disrupted FIA Formula 2 qualifying at the Baku City Circuit on Friday afternoon.

Crawford set an early benchmark lap time to rise to the top of the time sheets with a 1:54.791 and he withstood it through three red flag periods, before the session eventually concluded on the third.

Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli was not far behind Crawford and was within two hundredths of a second from his lap time. A great effort for the Italian who is demonstrating brilliant form.

It was a very mixed session at Teams Championship leaders Invicta Racing though. Fornaroli's teammate, Roman Stanek, had a crash with John Bennett, which brought out the third and final red flag.

Stanek went wide at the first turn and rejoined dangerously. In doing so, he collided with John Bennett in a heavy impact. This ended both of their sessions and everyone else's.

The Stewards investigated this and handed Stanek two separate sanctions. His first was a five-place grid penalty for both races, after the Czech Republican driver was deemed to be at fault. Two penalty points were also additionally sanctioned for this collision.
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As Stanek was the direct cause of the red flag, because he caused the collision, he also had his best lap time deleted. This dropped Stanek from ninth to 12th.

The other two red flags were individual mistakes, which both resulted in crashes at different points of the race track.

First, Amaury Cordeel brought out a red flag after the Rodin Motorsport driver had a big crash at Turn 13, following a collision with the wall.

Cordeel, as he was the direct cause of the red flag, lost his best lap time. This was irrelevant anyway as the Belgian had already ended the session in a provisional place of 22nd and slowest.

The other red flag was caused by Williams Academy driver Victor Martins, driving for the ART Grand Prix team. Martins, who was pushing hard on his flying lap, made a mistake by messing the braking up at Turn 3.

Like Cordeel, Martins lost his best lap time from the session, as punishment for the red flag. He dropped from fourth to 13th in the final classification.

A fourth and final driver was penalised after the session and that was Joshua Durksen of AIX Racing. The Paraguayan was handed a one-place penalty for both races, after he was deemed to have impeded Laurens Van Hoepen.

Van Hoepen was one of two drivers competing in their first qualifying session at the Baku City Circuit. The other was his Trident teammate Martinius Stenshorne, with both having graduated from FIA Formula 3.

Stenshorne ended a fantastic seventh in the final classification. The McLaren Development driver initially qualified eighth but following Martins' lap being deleted, he was promoted to seventh.

In the final classification, it was Prema's Alpine Academy driver Gabriele Mini, who was third ahead of McLaren Development junior Alex Dunne and Williams Academy driver Luke Browning, who completed the top five.

Josep 'Pepe' Maria Marti was sixth and ahead of Stenshorne. Sebastian Montoya ends the qualifying classification in eighth with Dino Beganovic in ninth.

After being promoted two places following laps being deleted, Mexican Rafael Villagomez will start on pole for the very first time in FIA Formula 2.

The Van Amersfoort Racing driver will start Saturday from the front of the field.

2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Round 12 - Baku Qualifying overall classification

1. Jak Crawford
2. Leonardo Fornaroli
3. Gabriele Mini
4. Alex Dunne
5. Luke Browning
6. Pepe Marti
7. Martinius Stenshorne
8. Sebastian Montoya
9. Dino Beganovic
10. Rafael Villagomez
11. Richard Verschoor
12. Roman Stanek
13. Victor Martins
14. Joshua Durksen
15. John Bennett
16. Kush Maini
17. Arvid Lindblad
18. Oliver Goethe
19. Ritomo Miyata
20. Laurens Van Hoepen
21. Cian Shields
22. Amaury Cordeel (Not Classified)

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer - F1 Journal